Re: Ark - A Big Damned Webseries by Trey Stokes

Re: Ark - A Big Damned Webseries by Trey Stokes

I've watched 1 & 2, and I'm fairly well hooked. I love that Tapping doesn't talk to herself. Altho I personally would be talking to myself like I was on cocaine and suffering from Tourette's, lone characters in movies tend to do too much narration.

Fictional character:"Where am I? What is happening? I gotta get outa here. Maybe I can find a door."

Zarban:"What the fuck?! Hey! Hey! Anybody?! ... Goddammit! Who the fuck is responsible for this?! You sons of bitches! This shit doesn't happen by accident!" Then I would go back and forth between loudly pleading for anyone to help and threatening to murder the first person I found.

Re: Ark - A Big Damned Webseries by Trey Stokes

Just finished watching the first episode. That transition — you know the one I mean — was really great.

(And Faldor, you of all people have no room to complain on this one. I've read that QI can never be shown outside the UK, 'cause obtaining worldwide licensing for all the art on the big screens is impossible. Maybe we could work out some kind of strategic exchange: we get QI, you get … hmm … let's say … Maine. Deal?)

Re: Ark - A Big Damned Webseries by Trey Stokes

Snail wrote:

Was the voice at the end the guy in the White Suit in the apartment? Sounded the same to me...

Yes, it is. To be honest I'm not a fan of the actor's performance, he was just available for free on short notice. If we continue the series I may retroactively replace the voice so we can cast somebody else.

Anyway...

As I write this, the Ark Intermission episode has yet to be released - and when it does this thread may become the official discussion thread for it, or not. I dunno, that'll be a Teague thing. But I figure why not go ahead and do this now, I can always repost it if necessary...

To recap: Ark is curently viewable in the U.S. on Hulu, but nowhere else in the world. This is not because we don't WANT Ark to be seen worldwide, it's because Hulu's territory is U.S. only, and Hulu is the only site (so far) that's hosting Ark. The rights to Ark in the rest of the world are still available.

So the same week we delivered the episodes to Hulu, I uploaded them to YouTube on the assumption that we'd use that as the platform to show Ark to the rest of the world. They've been there ever since, set to Private mode, just waiting until I got the go-ahead to make them public.

Except, oops, Ark became an instant hit on Hulu.

Which meant Ark's owners (which, I remind you, I am not one of) realized they might do better than just throwing the episodes on YouTube, putting ads on them, and hoping the rest of the world stumbled on them. The myth that putting something on YouTube guarantees viral success was debunked years ago, nobody (myself included) believes in that strategy any more.

So the owners made a deal with Content Media Corp, a distribution company that promotes independent films and tv shows - and now web series - overseas. Content's mission is to try to place Ark with the French equivalent of Hulu, and the Belgian equivalent of Hulu, and (repeat with every country in the world). For every buyer they find, Content gets a cut of the profit, and Ark gets a cut of the profit. This is what distribution companies do, and have done for decades.

So check it out: Content has featured Ark nicely in their 2012 catalog (and I like playing find-the-Ark-thumbnails on the first page) and even more nicely in their Mipcom brochure.

But it's a hard sell, the episodes are short and it all ends on a cliffhanger that (so far) is not guaranteed to ever be resolved. But whatever non-US country you live in, if you operate a website that gets millions of hits, by all means ring up Content and ask about hosting Ark.

If you don't happen to have a website like that, well, how about this... the relatively tiny number of participants in this forum won't damage the market value of Ark if you should happen to see it. So I've thrown the switches on the episodes at YouTube from Private to Unlisted, which means they are now viewable if you know the link.

And (how's this for a switch!) they're blocked in the U.S. - you U.S. viewers can just keep on going to Hulu, where you will watch those Geico commercials and give thanks for them, as I do.

This is an honor-system thing, if the hit counts start going suspiciously higher than the approximate number of overseas members of this forum, I'll re-Private the videos. So no sharing, no leaking, and by the way, they're un-embeddable.

Re: Ark - A Big Damned Webseries by Trey Stokes

A big thank you to Trey for the youtube link.

Just watched through all the episodes and I'm totally hooked and loving it. I don't know how I would have felt watching each episode a week apart. I felt that the amount of stuff shown in each episode is a bit on the lower side and it might be off-putting to watch so little and then wait 7 days for more.

Although I might be totally wrong because that could be the main hook for such a series.

Re: Ark - A Big Damned Webseries by Trey Stokes

Test Show

Yep, it works.

"Most people don't even know what sysadmins do, but trust me, if they all took a lunch break at the same time they wouldn't make it to the deli before you ran out of bullets protecting your canned goods from roving bands of mutants."

Re: Ark - A Big Damned Webseries by Trey Stokes

Well Trey, that's a hell of a thing you've got there. Definitely something to be proud of...although, those matte lines caused me slightly more than a touch of physical pain, but I think I can forgive you

Although,

Show

who was the voice at the end? He sounds so remarkably familiar but I can't place it.

Re: Ark - A Big Damned Webseries by Trey Stokes

maul2 wrote:

Well Trey, that's a hell of a thing you've got there. Definitely something to be proud of...although, those matte lines caused me slightly more than a touch of physical pain, but I think I can forgive you

Yeah, there are some shots that never quite got there, for reasons that would make for a long, not very interesting story.

But on the other hand, I bet there are a lot more matte shots in there than you think.

maul2 wrote:

Show

who was the voice at the end? He sounds so remarkably familiar but I can't place it.

Like I said, I would have preferred to use another actor, that one was just cheap and available...

We considered that early on, but ultimately decided not to go that way (partly, to be honest, because Lost In Space did it). I'm glad we didn't, because a lot of folks have made that same guess. So we'll let them think that for a while longer, and then pay it off by revealing that it's someone else.